The California Community Foundation: Our Partners in Change

Originally posted on www.cnmsocal.org.

The air seemed a little tense as California Community Foundation’s Joan Palevsky Center started to fill up with nonprofit leaders. There was light chatter as people stood around sipping the requisite Corner Bakery coffee and pretending the muffins and pastries weren’t there. I, apparently defying the natural order of things, grabbed a cup of water and an apple turnover and sat in the back.

Everyone else filed in around the front and the middle, and started up quiet conversations with the people in the seats next to them. It’s normally very difficult to get any group of adults to quiet down, let alone nonprofit folks who are usually such a passionate and boisterous bunch, but there was almost immediate silence as CCF’s Vice President of Programs, Nike Irvin, stood up at the mic to say hello to the group.

There was a weak “Good Morning” from the crowd directed back toward the front of the room.

Here we go again, I thought to myself. Two groups with the same goals that just can’t seem to get comfortable with each other.

The audience, all dressed in their business best, sat quietly as Nike welcomed us all and began to lay the groundwork for what was to be covered during our two hours together. Written in bold at the top of the agenda was, “Partnership in Change: A Nonprofit Community Forum.” Yes, partners, I thought again to myself. Where you have all the money and we have to beg for it.

President Antonia Hernandez took her turn at the mic, and began by giving a bit of the history of the Foundation. They are celebrating their 100th year in 2015, and have spent the last 10 of those years focusing their grantmaking. They have gone from small grants (“$5,000 here, $20,000 there….we weren’t making a damn difference.”) to really pooling their resources to fund greater impact. Now that that 10 year strategic plan is coming to a close, they asked themselves, “How do we work better with our grantees?”

And so their team went to work, listening and learning and discussing and creating, and they are now travelling the county, rolling out the next 10 year strategic plan. I applaud their efforts to share with the community, but I couldn’t shake the vibe in the room.

She reiterated that this was a partnership. “We are the enablers,” she said. “You are the doers. To be effective agents of change in LA County, it can’t be just about grantmaking. It’s also about convening. It’s about finding common ground and solutions.”

CCF’s plan has three goals:

1. To generate positive social change
2. To increase giving by 2025
3. To maximize impact

Well, this is all well and good, but we’ve heard things like this before. If I had a dime for every time I heard the terms “social change” or “impact”, I would have a bank account that rivals that of CCF itself.

But then something happened.

Antonia expanded on the plan and started answering the questions that were brewing in our heads, but wouldn’t dare say aloud.

“I understand that there is a power dynamic between grantor and grantee. I don’t want to tell you we’re going to eliminate that, but we’re going to try to decrease it. You’re a really important partner to us.”

Goodness, did she just acknowledge the power dynamic?

“I want my staff to be partners with you and to be accountable to you.”

Accountable to…us?

When asked what exactly this partnership was supposed to look like, she didn’t pretend to have all the answers. “Embrace a relationship with us the best way you know how.” She went on to say that Executive Directors and those in the development department should facilitate an introduction between the program officers and those doing the work (“the experts”).

Nike stepped in and reiterated that we as nonprofits should be collaborating with each other, just as they were collaborating with other funders. “We all want the same things for LA. We expect you to talk to one another and come together when you’re doing like-minded work.”

By this time, the audience had warmed up. We weren’t given specific strategies for the plan, but we were given some hope for a more open relationship, and the promise that they would do what it takes to be good partners to us. They even left time at the end for us to have face-to-face time with the program officers that could answer our myriad questions.

What I found so interesting about all of this is not that anyone was saying anything groundbreaking or even new, but that they were saying anything at all (and saying it sincerely). The power dynamic that Antonia mentioned is something that poisons our work and our ability to move forward. Nonprofits compete for dollars when they should be collaborating. Grantwriters fib on proposals and budgets because they don’t think their program officer will understand what they really need. Those that are doing the work scream to anyone who will listen that A, B, and C need to be funded instead of X, Y, and Z only to be told things like, “That’s not what the funders are supporting this year, so we’re going to do something else instead.” And the people that get hurt the most by this are the constituents. Which is insanity, because as Nike said, we all want the same things. Each of us—funder and fundee—do the work we do to help the same people. We are truly partners, whether we’re any good at partnering or not. So for CCF to address that and address the problems inherent in this funding model was really refreshing.

They also addressed the idea of overhead, although they didn’t use that term. When Jonathan Zeichner of A Place Called Home asked if they would be increasing multi-year grants, Antonia said that when they fund nonprofits, they are “betting on the leadership and the institution. I believe in multi-year grants. We don’t want to make more work.” She didn’t answer the question directly, so we were left unclear about if there would be any actual increase in multi-year funding, but Nike did say, “We’re looking to be less hard-wired and prescriptive. We’ll do more multi-year grants if it makes sense.”

Antonia mentioned a few times that nonprofit professionals were the experts, and that our boots-on-the-ground perspective is an important part of a partnership. “Our tools are money and influence,” she said. And nonprofits’ tools are expertise and a close connection to people in the community that need our services. The important thing for both sides to remember is that neither can function without the other, let alone generate positive systemic change.

I, for one, am excited for the California Community Foundation’s next 10 years, and look forward to witnessing the difference they make not only in Los Angeles County, but in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. I hope CCF and nonprofits can set an example for what true partnership really looks like.

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Read Antonia’s letter to grantees to read more about the California Community Foundation’s new plan.

To attend one of the other roll out sessions, visit https://calfund.org/partners-in-change